They fired me because of the crisis. Right?
C is for CANDID and Crisis and Consequence
The 2008 crisis killed my position as a copywriter at Ogilvy.
For real.
It was that.
I'm sure.
Why are you looking at me like that?
You want the truth?
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Well, it's complicated.
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A timeline:
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At university, a modest amount of people thought I was good at writing.
I believed them.
In my last year, a teacher/creative director took me as an intern.
I went hard.
Two years later, I started working at the best agency in the country.
I got overly comfy.
After 12 months, they showed me the exit. They blamed the crisis.
I believed them.
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Full circle!
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So, what happened?
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You have the Bob Dylans and Taylor Swifts of the world. Early praise won't get in the way of their hustle.
And then you have the ones who sing the Ice-Ice Babies and Macarenas. They crash and burn if you pump them up too soon.
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Validation is one hell of a drug. Partying until 3 AM every other weekday won't help either.
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Ok, you want to know about a dumb move I made at the time?
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After breaking my wrist on a longboarding accident, I took medical leave, arguing that I should rest my poor-poor bone.
And then.
I’m spotted by half of my colleagues partying in a bar like there was no tomorrow on THE SAME DAY I called in “too disabled for work.”
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Three weeks after that, the housing bubble crisis goes apesh*t.
I'm called to the office together with 2 other colleagues.
Before I have the chance to sit, the boss goes:
Bummer, guys. We gotta let you go. The market is crashing. We're cutting staff down.
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I clang to that reason like a baby koala. I grew up in a household savaged by the 1998 crisis. I wasn’t shocked. Crises cause unfair and unavoidable things, right?
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Well, that depends.
Ogilvy's Creative team: 30ish
People made redundant: 3
90% kept their job
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The story I told myself about "losing my job to the crisis” served me well for a while. It's a soothing little tale.
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But it's that: a tale.
When I acknowledged that I was laid off because being a decent writer can't make up for being a terrible employee. I felt lighter.
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Economic crises suck sh*t, no doubt. They cause disproportionate damage to vulnerable people.
But.
In cases like 2008 Matias, crisis act like a giant rug where you sweep under what you don't want to account for. And that's bad for business, amigos.
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Giving up the driving seat of your story to “Da crisis” was of little help for me. It's hard to grow from that one.
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The good news is that, with a potential economic crisis around the corner (don't panick, it might not happen), we have some time to tighen up the screws, brace for impact, and get our stories in place.
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